Counterpart Mine
by Chaytel Solverre
Summary: Distraught over the death of a young Freedom Fighter, Sonic finds himself wishing for a better world. When a figure from past adventures comes to grant his wish, however, he finds it's not at all the world he'd imagined.


**Counterpart Mine**

**Prologue:** _'The Only Peace We Know'_

It was a somber day in Knothole Village. The makeshift home base for the Knothole Freedom Fighters was the site, today, of a funeral for one of their own. Deaths were not unheard of in their seemingly endless war against tyranny, but the death of a younger member was always hard to deal with, and no one was taking it harder than one Sonic the Hedgehog.

Her name was Jessica. A young fox and an increasingly-close friend of Tails, the teenage girl had been shot in the back by a stray laser bolt from a SWATbot; a shot that Sonic himself had seen, and dodged, as casually and effortless as any other he'd evaded on that routine patrol in the Great Forest. What he had failed to do, in his mind, was ensure that no one else would be in the line of fire.

Tails was inconsolable. The normally bright and cheerful young two-tailed teenager had locked himself away in his hut in heartbroken silence. He took no visitors and spoke not a word, not to anyone, and especially not to Sonic. He did not attend the funeral, and Sonic could not blame him for it.

Sally had delivered the eulogy; as she often did for funerals and a particular comment of hers, often made at these things, had stuck with him throughout. _"We must remember to carry on in the face of death, as friends, as family, as freedom fighters. We must remember to honor in our memory, but not grieve forever for those we love when they die, for in death they have found the peace they fought so hard for. And each time we face our greatest struggles, our darkest hours, when it feels as though death is the only peace we know, we must remember that our cause is not revenge, but freedom. We fight on for the living, not the dead. Not to prolong the violence, but to end it; so that we might someday find the peace we seek in life."_

But at that moment, as Sonic raced through the green majesty of the Great Forest, his cause was only revenge. For his heartbroken best friend, for the parents of a heroic young girl. For a life cut short, unfairly, through no one's fault at all. And underneath it all, for himself, to assuage the crushing guilt that hung over him like the overcast morning sky above. He knew that he was not to blame, but he could not shake the feeling of it. For Sonic the Hedgehog, so used to always saving the day, saving everyone, it was unthinkable to somehow fail to save someone now. Try as he might, though, that chance had come and gone. For Sonic, nothing felt impossible, but he could not save the dead. He could not give them life. He could not outrun his problems.

Sonic dug tracks in the rain-softened ground with his feet as he came to a skidding stop; punching a nearby tree in anger and impotent frustration. The mighty hardwood shuddered slightly, leaves rustling, and a faint spray of brittle splinters of bark flew loose around his balled fist. He threw his head back, quills rustling in the oppressive wind, and shouted in pain and anger up at the sky. _"I hate you!"_ His condemnation was drowned out in the wind, but the hatred remained. Hate was a terrible thing, but he did hate. He hated the man that ruined the world, that built machines that were good for nothing; that existed only to hunt and kill, to preserve a sense of pointless dominance. As much as he hated the doctor, at that moment in time he hated himself even more for his failure.

"Hate's a strong word, Sonic." It was a voice Sonic recognized. In fact, it was his voice. "Are you sure you wanna use it?"

Sonic knew who had found him. He put a name to his unexpected guest even before turning to face him. "Zonic..." His doppelganger stood sideways on the trunk of a nearby tree, clad in the same futuristic armor he always wore. Zonic was, in his own words, a 'Zone Cop'; a version of Sonic from another universe that worked for an organization that policed and protected all the many possible realities. He never seemed to appear on good terms, nor with good news. "Whaddya want?"

"You." The horizontally-aligned hedgehog responded casually. "I'm here to take you somewhere."

"Then find another me," Sonic answered, turning and walking away. "'cause this one's not in the mood."

"If I could, I would." Zonic carefully stepped off the side of the tree, aligning himself with the ground like a normal resident of this reality. He trembled momentarily from the effort, and continued his smooth recruitment pitch, like always. "But I need you. You're the 'prime' Sonic, and you have a responsibility to every Mobius out there.

"Responsibility!?"Sonic pointed an accusatory finger at his counterpart. It didn't matter what the zone cop wanted now; all Sonic wanted was someone to yell at, someone to fight. "Where do you get off, huh? You're the one with all the power, but you won't ever get involved! All you do is watch, and drag me into it whenever something's wrong in some other world!" He punched the tree again, threateningly, "Well, where are you when something's wrong right here? I never see another me come running to help when _my _Mobius' got problems!"

"This world really _does _have a problem," Zonic sneered behind his helmet, "if its hero is this absorbed in self-pity."

"You wanna start a fight with me? Then do it, Zonic!" Sonic balled his fists and took up a posture. "But I'm not in the mood for this!"

Zonic shook his head, but adopted a similar fighting stance anyway. "It wouldn't fix anything. I'm not here to fight you. I'm here to help _you_, for a change."

"What?" Sonic raised a brow and stepped back, unsure of what to make of it. Was this some roundabout way to get him to do something, again? "Are you serious?"

"I wouldn't have showed up if I wasn't serious," He replied cooly, "you oughta know that, Sonic. You're me."

"I also know that everything you say is half a lie." Sonic shot back, "So you're _not_ me."

"Oh please. You lie to yourself all the time. You're doing it right now."

Sonic grit his teeth and threw a punch, sick and tired of his grating counterpart and his terrible timing. Zonic, just as swift as his prime self, seized his fist and guided it gently into the tree, into the same grooves his bruised hand had already dug twice before. "Sonic. Stop it. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Stop lying to yourself and blaming yourself for what happened. I told you, I'm here to help."

Sonic sighed in defeat. He wasn't good at emotions; at reading them in others, or at understanding his own. He'd wanted to get rid of Zonic, and he still did, but being a hothead wasn't going to do it. "Fine. How?" His acceptance was barely a whisper, so unhappy with giving it as he was at that moment.

"You're mad at the whole world for the death of that girl." Zonic had obviously been watching for a bit before he'd made his appearance. "But, right now, you hate _him_ for this, above all. Right now, you wish Robotnik never existed." He watched his prime counterpart hang his head slowly. "I don't see why you feel so bad about it. You're hardly the only person on Mobius that would wish that. Ah, but that's not all there is, right? You also hate _you_, Sonic, you hate yourself and you wish you'd never existed either."

"Yeah." Sonic admitted, subdued. "So what?"

"So I can show you a Mobius where neither of you do."


End file.
